This disclosure relates in general to storage systems and, more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to storage cartridges.
Removable cartridges for data storage applications come in two basic types: those containing storage media such as magnetic tape or magnetic disk, and those containing electronic storage elements such as flash memory chips (e.g., Compact Flash cards). The first type of cartridge is normally a passive mechanical device where the media (e.g., tape) is pulled out of the cartridge to contact the recording heads or where the heads are inserted into the cartridge to contact the fixed media (e.g., a disk cartridge). The first type normally has no electrical signals passed to the cartridge at all. In the second type, the connection with the cartridge is made by an electrical connector and information is passed electronically via the connector.
There are external enclosures that hold a hard drive. These enclosures are coupled to a computer with a universal serial bus (USB) or Fire Wire. The computer can mount these drives into the operating system environment to allow reading and writing to the hard drive. In some cases, the external enclosure has a separate power supply, while in others, the interface cable to the computer provides the power. Often, these enclosures have embedded LEDs to show power and access to the hard drive.
There are hard drives that can be plugged-into standard computer ports. The Compact Flash form factor has compliant cards that include a small hard drive. The PC Card or PCMCIA card format also has compliant cards with hard drives. Both the Compact Flash and PC Card formats support flash-based memory to allow mass storage.
In the appended figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.